


Lessons Learned

by Solrosfalt



Category: Fire Emblem: Shin Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Ken | Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Genre: Family Drama, Family Dynamics, Family Fluff, Fire Emblem Genweek 2018 Summer Edition, Gen, Hi I'm Sol and this was written during the heat wave, Pre-Canon, Running Away, Summer is Hot and It Sucks, This work contains the faulty logic of a thirteen-year-old with heat-exhaustion, mentions of gang-violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 04:42:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15744522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solrosfalt/pseuds/Solrosfalt
Summary: Elice goes through her rebellious phase and causes some trouble, because summer is unbearable.





	Lessons Learned

**Author's Note:**

> For Fire Emblem Genweek 2018 Summer Edition: Prompt "encounter/magic"
> 
> (and while you're here, may I recommend the fics that made me more interested in Elice's character: "Orphans, Kingdoms" and "Lionhearted Girl". They are Fantastic.)

Elice was thirteen years old when she decided to run away.

 

Summer had reached its peak, and thirteen-year-old Elice was tired of waking up sweaty in her bed. She was tired of feeling her hair and clothes stick to her all day long while she still had to look pristine and patient. She was tired of responsibility, manners and grace.

Princessly things usually _weren’t_ bad; in fact, she rather liked them. But on days like these, all she wanted was to eat breakfast while she lay down on the stone floors of the castle dining hall, far away from the suffocating, damp carpet of her room or the clammy air outside. Hand fans could only do so much, and while her father had decreed that every able and available citizen should transport seawater to pour on the hot cobblestones in the city, it didn’t help Elice much.

What helped was the ocean, and it was off limits. The servants were busy trying to piece their work-day together while no one really had the energy to work efficiently. They couldn’t possibly follow the royal children to the beach. Same thing applied to their parents, and for the knights and maids and retainers.

“ _The heat won’t last that long, honey-crumble,_ ” Elice’s mother smiled at her when she complained about being stuck in the castle. Her mother’s hand fan whipped against the hair that was loose against her collarbones.

‘ _Not that long_ ’? It had lasted for three days already! And why did Elice need anyone to watch her on the beach anyway? She was big enough to swim on her own! She could relax in the shade and hop into the waves when she needed to – she knew she wasn’t supposed to stay in the sun for too long (although her affinity for light magic granted her some immunity from sunburn) or swim too far out.

Really, what was the point of living on an island if you couldn’t even go to the ocean when you wanted to?

Now, even if Elice didn’t like being boiled in the castle, it wasn’t enough for her to want to leave home on her own. Elice did accept her parents’ reasons, although begrudgingly.

So it wasn’t her plan to run away; it was a spur of the moment thing.

 

Her plan for the day _had_ been to have her breakfast with a cold apple drink from the ground cellars, and spend her time on the shadier parts of the training grounds.

She had every intention to learn how to conjure blizzard magic; Light Magic was a branch of its own and separate from Nature Magic and Earth magic, but there were points where all kinds of magic energies intertwined, so technically a talented mage could learn all three. Four, if you counted Veil Magic – the fancier name for ‘the dark arts’ – but for the most part, no one _did_ count Veil Magic as a part of anything. Except for bad omens and disasters, but every sensible magician knew they’d better not dabble in such things.

Right now, all she wanted from her magic talents was a cold spiral of icy crystals to dance around her and cool her down – and how hard could it be?

Sure, all she had managed after days of practice were beams of useless light that only stung at her eyes and made the world around her _even hotter_ – but ignoring that, how hard could it be?

 

She was on her way to the dining hall, her thoughts stuck on the cold apple juice that awaited her, when three knights almost collided with her in the hallway.

“Your Highness!” The speaker was out of breath. Elice did not recognize him. “Where is his majesty? There’s a high-level commotion between the youth gangs on the square – general Jagen needs orders!”

Elice didn’t know where her father was, and leading the soldiers to him would put her away from the cold refreshment she _really needed_ , like _right now_ —

“Oh, them,” Elice said. “Father has already spoken of them – they can’t hold up for long, you’re supposed to surround the square and get the innocent people out of there.”

The soldiers blinked, and one fidgeted with his feet. “Are you sure—? What about the troublemakers?”

Elice sighed, and she didn’t think; her brain felt like it was boiling and her temper heated with it.

“Just let them fight off their steam; they can’t do much in the heat anyway!”

“But wh—“ The soldier cast a worried glance on the fellows at his side, then looked back on Elice, his hands finally moving into a salute. “I’ll let the general know, your highness! Thank you!”

They disappeared the way they came, and Elice didn’t think of it much further. She continued to the kitchen.

She downed her cold drink, and one of the maids gave her a wet towel to put on her neck. The maid had one of her own, but it smelled of seawater while Elice’s probably had the luxury of being dipped in rainwater. It didn’t smell, anyway.

She thanked her graciously, and silently vowed to make it up to these servants who worked despite the heat, by learning how to cast a blizzard. A lot of their troubles would cease with that – at least near the castle.

She munched on her boiled egg on the way to the training grounds, trying to conjure the feeling of ice and snow. The egg grew warm and mushy in her hand.

\---

She had silently cursed over her magical abilities for over an hour, before her mother found her on the training grounds.

Queen Liza of Altea was quite a gentle woman, and Elice tried to take after her in every such way – but now her mother looked as cross as Elice felt. Something about her told Elice that this probably wasn’t because of her failed magic attempts.

“Elice, come inside.”

Elice lowered her hands, doused the shimmer around her fingertips. She wasn’t going to be difficult but her mood was terrible again from all her failures, and it left her _wanting_ to be difficult.

“We need to talk.”

That wasn’t a good sign. But Elice yielded nonetheless. She was quite sure she hadn’t done anything wrong to warrant any anger, but the memory of how she’d lied to the soldiers this morning slowly came back to her. Maybe… maybe that hadn’t been a good idea.

Behind closed doors, Liza drew a deep sigh, and sat down on a stool. Elice stayed standing.

“Honey-crumble,” her mother began. Her voice rang the way a frown sounds. “I am very disappointed in you. Do you know why?”

Elice shrugged and mumbled that sure she might know, maybe, and her mother sighed again.

“Your father and I were met by a report from the town square, with the general acting on his own accord – claiming he had already received king’s orders. Then two brave soldiers tell us that indeed they had, but extended by you.”

Elice’s neck felt hot, and she hated it. Couldn’t shame be _cold_?

“Why, Elice? Why’d you do such a thing?”

Elice shrugged again. “I wanted them to go away,” she muttered. “And,” she defended herself before her mother could speak again; “I thought it was a good idea!”

She sounded like such a child, like she was Marth trying to defend why he’d line his window-frame with oatmeal to feed the birds.

“Fourteen people were seriously hurt, Elice! General Jagen says it was more _luck_ that no gang member was killed! Perhaps there was no better solution, but it was your father’s decision, and not yours! You can’t claim to speak for him for your own gain! You understand that, don’t you? It was selfish, and immature, and not the way a princess should behave!”

Elice’s cheeks burned. She didn’t look at her mother.

Why was it such a problem? Maybe she couldn’t be a princess, and then her mom could just say so! Dumb, stupid daughter that couldn’t even teach herself ice magic! Elice’s brain was boiling again, and tears felt hot against her eyelids.

“Elice, don’t you have something to say?”

Elice stared into the ground. “No.”

“Elice…”

Her mother had that sound of a frown again, and Elice didn’t want to take any more of it. She slammed the door behind her, and she marched away from the room.

Petty, mean and stupid Elice! Worthless daughter! No good for anything! That’s what her mother actually meant to say, and Elice _knew_ it, she _felt_ it! And if everyone thought she was such a waste, then she should show them! She could handle herself!

 

She slowed down by the entrance to the training grounds. Her mind cooled a little bit at the sight of the exhausted soldiers doing their drills, shaded by the castle crenellations. She stopped to watch them, her thoughts catching up with her.

Her father was probably out on the town’s square, cleaning up _her_ mistake – and, she thought, if mother had been cross, how angry wouldn’t _father_ be? He’d never trust her again. He’d dethrone her, disinherit her! He’d name her a failure of an heir – oh by Anri’s bones, she’d be haunted for the rest of her life by this stupid, stupid morning! She _never_ wanted summer again!

She clenched her fists at her sides, and glared out on the grounds.

Marth and Merric had filled her previous spot in the shade. Marth leaned back in the grass, not a single woe in his life, and he watched Merric who waved his arms around like a windmill. The young mage spotted her, and grinned wide.

“Hey, Elice! Check this out!”

He brought his hands to his chin, and a breeze exploded from inside his palms. It caused him to topple over. The wind hit Elice’s cheeks. It was nice to finally have some air moving.

She smiled a little and stepped closer. “That’s great, Merric.”

And she meant that. An affinity for wind energies was an extremely rare gift, and with that, a six-year-old Merric could do more to cool everyone down than Elice could with her blinks of white, hot light.

They truly didn’t need her, did they?

She was a selfish, useless princess, and they wouldn’t miss her if she left.

 

It was now that Elice decided. She looked down on her little brother, sprawled in the grass.

“Marth”, she said. “I’m running away from home.”

Marth’s face went from dozed happiness to horror in a moment’s notice.

“You can’t do that!” he exclaimed. Merric looked on in silent terror, his arms half raised in an unfinished training spell.

“I have to”, Elice said, her voice trembling a little with the weight of it all. But she could handle herself!

“I’m not leaving you!” Marth said and hoisted himself to standing.

Elice pursed her lips. Saying no to Marth was something she couldn’t do, ever, but what was her right in tearing him away from home, too?

At the thought, she was hit by the crawling sensation that she wouldn’t get to see him again, maybe never! Or maybe they’d pass each other on the street; she a well known but tragic heroine, and he a king that had forgotten he had a sister, once… And he might not even recognize her!

She felt new tears. That was unacceptable.

“You can come with”, she said hastily. Marth only nodded, confused and frightened; she regretted saying it, but now it was too late to change her mind. She turned to Merric.

“Don’t tell anyone, Merric, all right?”

The mage’s gaze shivered, but he nodded. He could never say no to either Marth or Elice.

“Can’t Merric come too?” Marth begged, but now Elice shook her head.

 “This is gonna be super tough!” she said dramatically. “And besides, his mom and dad would be too sad, unlike ours!”

Marth accepted this with another tearful nod.

\---

Elice learned quickly what life on the run was like.

First of all, she had to hold her brother’s hand at all times – he was silent for the most part, but sometimes he’d sniffle a little, as if reminded by their situation. Elice squished his hand, and he squished it back, then he’d be silent again. The cycle repeated every ten minutes or so.

Second of all, she had to ration her food. She had four tin pennies in her pockets, and they scoured the market together searching for the cheapest options. Marth stood wide-eyed by the stand with candied apples and honey-glazed lollipops for a bit too long, and the keeper leaned over the stand and told him to ‘ _scram if you can’t pay, urchin’_.

“Don’t talk to him like that!” Elice then yelled and slammed one of their precious pennies on the table, which granted them a lollipop.

Marth half-heartedly chewed on the candy between sniffles, and by now squishing his hand wasn’t enough to calm him down.

“Don’t mind that keeper,” Elice tried to comfort him. “He was a meanie.”

Marth dried his eyes with the same hand that held his lollipop, and then he let his arm fall to his side. He had barely touched the candy. Elice felt sick to her stomach.

She really was selfish. Marth didn’t deserve this, just so _she_ wouldn’t be alone. He deserved to go to the fairs with mother and father buying him plenty of honey candies and braided sugar cookies, without storekeepers calling him names. He deserved mother’s warm hugs, Merric holding his hand, and father’s kind laughs, General Jagen’s encouragement—

Her throat clogged, and she distracted herself by paying for two apples. They were cheap, though now she only had one penny left. 

She’d better move away from the market, and think about how she could get some more money. Maybe by putting on a light show, with her magic? Or was it dangerous? Magicians were wanted by the bad sort, or so mother said…

She clenched her teeth, and pulled Marth into an alleyway. It didn’t smell nice there; it probably didn’t smell nice to begin with, and the heat made everything worse.

Marth bumped into a barrel, and the lollipop fell from his hand, into the dry, dusty cobblestones.

His sniffles stopped; now he wailed. Unfiltered distress, crashing onto her ears like a vase shatters against the floor; and equally so, Elice’s heart shattered into a thousand pieces.

“Oh, Marth,” she said, and hunched in front of him. He stood haphazardly, tears spluttering from his eyes.

“B-being on the run is h-haa-ard”, he hiccupped, sniffled and wailed louder. “I want to go hooome!”

Elice hugged him; then her own tears came in streams.

 

The city they lived in that always felt so familiar was dark and big and scary, she was hungry and helpless and she missed her mom, she missed her dad, she even missed general Jagen and every maid that was her friend, all the smiles in the castle…

It was getting late in the afternoon, and Elice wondered if anyone actually missed her, wondered where she’d gone...

They must miss Marth, at least!

No, this was unacceptable.

She leaned back and carefully rubbed her little brother’s cheek.

“I’m sorry”, she said with a thick voice. “You’re right – we’re gonna go home again. It will be all right. You wanna walk with me? Hold my hand?”

Marth drew in a great sob, a disgusting sound through his nose. Then he nodded.

Elice looked up and scanned her surroundings. She wasn’t quite certain where they were, but she could see the castle towers in the distance – it wouldn’t be a long walk. It was cooler outside now, besides. This was fine, just a stupid mistake.

She got to standing, and reached down for her brother’s hand, when someone called out to her.

“Hey there”, a kind voice said. “Say, I think I know who you are. People are searching for you two!”

Elice spun around, placed Marth behind her back.

The stranger was alone in the alleyway, and he didn’t look that threatening, but Elice was scared regardless.

“’ _Prince Marth’_ , they call,” the man continued. Or perhaps he was a boy. He was older than Elice, at least.

“ _’Princess Elice_ ’, they call. Soldiers all over town. Went and got lost, did you?”

Elice shook her head. “No, we know our way back.”

The boy nodded. He might be just fifteen, Elice gathered from a closer look – but everyone older than her was difficult to determine ages for.

“It’s all well and good,” he went on. Elice really didn’t like him – she was scared, that might be part of it, but his tone was a bit too rough to be genuine. “Run off to your old dad, the king. You know, it’s thanks to him my sister lost her eye today. Funny story.”

Elice tried to back away.

“Don’t you move!” the strange boy barked, knife gleaming in the arc from his belt to his hand.

Elice froze. Marth shook with another sob.

“I told sis that the gang wouldn’t be good for her,” the boy rambled, “but she wouldn’t leave them, they were her friends – friends that did nothing as their bloody rivals gouged her eye out! They did nothing, just like the king’s soldiers that stood right by and looked on, like buffoons! Some protection they give!”

Elice felt like she was about to vomit. She couldn’t move.

“Got to teach him a lesson,” the boy breathed. Now Elice recognized why she was scared – the boy’s eyes were wide with grief and anger, someone hit by cruel injustice who longed to unmake it.

“He’ll pay attention when it’s his own kids’ eyes—“

“We’re not the king’s kids,” Elice blurted, but the boy grabbed her collar. She wasn’t very convincing, and Marth was crying and pulling hard at her arm, as if attempting to overpower the stranger and get her out of his grasp. She tried to push him away, she should tell him to run, but the gleaming edge closed in on her face – this was a mistake, it was a terrible mistake—

“You let her go, right now!”

A hand grabbed the wrist of the boy, and another knife’s edge slid up against his abdomen. The tip cut his clothes, but it did not go any further. Not yet.

Elice and the boy stood stunned, as they both looked into the face of Queen Liza. The boy opened his mouth, and his lip trembled, but he still didn’t let go.

 _Blind him, come on, come on_ , Elice raised her hands in front of his face, and waited. Light magic shot from her hands, and _that_ made him let go.

Their mother reacted instantly. She took Marth on her hip with one hand and ushered Elice forward with the other. The knife was still drawn, but the flat part of the blade lay against Elice’s cloak and didn’t do any damage. It might chafe at her clothes, but Elice did not care in the slightest.

\---

Elice wasn’t sure how much she truly remembered and how much her frightened mind had conjured up about their travel home, but she was fairly sure that Marth had cried on Queen Liza’s shoulder for the entire walk, and Elice had let her tears drip down on the dry stones. But they got home, eventually, and she’d never been more relieved.

“I’m sorry,” Merric told them as they entered the castle. “I’m sorry, I had to tell!”

Elice only smiled. “Thanks, Merric. It was good that you did. I was wrong, and it’s me who’s sorry.”

 

She got her scolding from her mother, but this time she accepted it. And then her mother was quiet as Elice told her of the boy in the alleyway, of what had happened to his sister and how it was Elice’s fault.

She got to cry on her mother’s shoulder too, and it felt a little better.

She asked again and again what she could do to make it up to the people she might have hurt, but her mother only shook her head.

“ _Remember_ it, honey-crumble. Maybe your father’s decision would have hurt fewer people, maybe it would have hurt _more_ people, but you can’t just fix it in a day. So remember it. Go talk to your father now, he expects you.”

Elice nodded, but she stopped in the doorway. “Mom… Would you really have used your knife on that boy?”

Liza smiled, a sad smile. “Oh, honey-crumbs. As a queen, it is my duty to condemn violence.” She paused. “As a mother though, I wouldn’t have cared what my duties are. You and Marth are worth the world for me, no matter what.”

\---

Speaking with her father wasn’t bad, it wasn’t bad at all.

He was a strict man, by all means. Sometimes a bit harder on Marth’s shortcomings than Elice thought he deserved; as if her little brother’s intense fear of hurting living things was somehow inappropriate for royalty. ‘ _He’s a child, father_ ’, Elice would excuse him, and more often than not, their father would praise her for defending him, and he’d lay off trying to change Marth’s behavior for a time. He usually listened to her, and he was always intent on letting her share her thoughts and learn the ways of rule. Didn’t amount to much, considering the days’ events.

 

When she faced him at his desk, she didn’t think her fear of being disinherited was that unrealistic. The frown was clear on his face, rather than hidden in his voice as was the case for his wife. His features were hardened from years of responsibility, the royal claymore strapped over his back like he’d just returned from battle. Well. He sort of had.

“Elice,” the King began. “What did you learn today?”

Elice didn’t mutter or look away. A drop of sweat ran beside her nose, but she ignored it.

“I was stupid,” she answered.

Her father smiled a little, to her surprise. The gesture exposed the little parts that made him human, rather than the valiant king the masses knew.

“That’s not the lesson, here. Yes, you did something wrong. It’s easy to put all the blame on yourself and detest yourself for it, but to what end? I ask again, dear daughter. What did you learn?”

Elice dried the side of her nose with her sleeve, searching for the answer that would let her out of her discomfort. She was humbled by her mistake, but that didn’t mean she didn’t want to get out of there as soon as possible.

“I was… thinking only of myself. I was tired, and hungry, and too warm, and…” Her father held up a hand, asking her to stop, but she continued; “… and that made me selfish. There! I learned that I should not be selfish.”

Her father gave her half a nod, and trailed with his hand in the air as if directing her thoughts. “That’s all good, Elice, but you just gave me a bunch of excuses as a reason for your actions. Do you mean that you should never again be tired, hungry and too warm, in order to keep this from happening again? How do you prevent such things?”

Elice sat quietly for a few seconds, before she shook her head. “You can’t?”

“That’s right,” the king smiled. “Listen. You will be queen one day, and I know you will do a fine job of it – if you let this be a lesson you never forget. You _cannot_ let your mood cloud your judgment, ever. That is a difficult thing indeed, of course – but you’re a princess, and destined for great things. Even if you’re heartbroken, even if you’re freezing cold or boiling hot, say, even if the fall of the world is on your doorstep, you… _Always. Think. Things. Through_!”

He said the last sentence with increased emphasis on every last word, stabbing his finger into the wood of his desk to further the point. Elice felt her cheeks heat up, but she nodded.

“It is human to be sour when hungry, for example,” her father continued. “But part of being royalty is to try to be _beyond_ human. It isn’t possible, of course not, not always. But if you can manage to stop and think even at your weakest, with enough practice you will learn to trust your gut, as your first instinct will be to think of your people’s needs before your own. Try to find the best solution for every problem you face, even under distress; and _own_ your mistakes. Then I know I can rest proudly as you ascend the throne.”

\---

Elice did remember her lesson, even as summer’s heat turned to winter and then summer again.

 

She honed her skills with age, and tried her very best to teach Marth the same way. He was soon the same age as she was when she’ decided to run away from home, and she saw her own hotheaded teenage thoughts reemerge within him. It was amusing in a way, especially since his anger would spark whenever he spotted mistreatment – he was still the caring child she knew. That boy would never run away like she had.

Except, he did. Because she told him to.

 

When Gra was at their doorstep with their torches and spears, she was scared. But she remembered her lesson, even then.

 

Seventeen-year-old Elice thought things through, and decided to stay and face their enemy, so that her brother could run.

 

It was an easy choice, when it came down to it.


End file.
